Jill Dando jurors 'ignored judge'

The Old Bailey jury which convicted Barry George of murdering Jill Dando deliberately ignored the trial judge's instructions by continuing their arguments in their hotel at night, the Appeal Court heard today.

Mr Justice Gage had told the jury only to deliberate in court hours and end their discussions before being taken to the hotel.

The panel which eventually returned a 10-1 majority verdict on George after five days of deliberation split into "convicters and acquitters" and carried on arguing in the Kensington Palace Hotel, the court heard.

The allegations, revealed in a book by armed robber turned author John McVicar, are part of George's grounds for appeal against his conviction.

McVicar claimed that through an intermediary who had contact with a juror he gained an "insight into how the consensus of opinion in the jury had shifted," the court was told.

George's counsel, Michael Mansfield QC, told the appeal judges that this raised "great concern" about a possible miscarriage of justice.

In addition a member of the jury telephoned George's solicitors and the Old Bailey authorities "in distress" complaining about "things said and done by jurors" in the trial.

George was convicted last July of shooting the BBC TV presenter on the doorstep of her home in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, in April 1999.

Mr Mansfield said the juror had rung the office of George's solicitor Marilyn Etienne on the evening of the verdict and again the next afternoon apparently "disgusted" with the verdict and wanting to know if more could be done about it.

The juror also contacted the Old Bailey authorities and was told that the deliberations of the jury room were sacrosanct and protected by a potential fine or imprisonment. The juror replied: "That's it then. I suppose I can't."

A further call was made to Miss Etienne showing that the juror was "deeply upset at not being able to say anything".

Further contact with the Old Bailey revealed that the juror wanted "something to be done because a terrible wrong had been done" which was a possible "mistreatment of justice".

Mr Mansfield said other "disturbing" allegations were contained in McVicar's book, Dead On Time, and extracts were passed to the three Appeal Court judges.

In the book McVicar claimed that most of the jury had come "from north and east London which proved lucky for me as I managed to get a feed through an intermediary into their thinking".

Mr Mansfield said: "If that is true it is plainly a potential irregularity for a juror to be communicating to somebody outside to provide a 'running commentary' on the views of the jury."

Through his mole on the jury McVicar discovered that "small groups on the jury still thrashed out their arguments during the lunch break and in the evenings at the Kensington Palace Hotel", the court heard.

Mr Mansfield said he understood that was the correct hotel yet the trial judge had emphasised that the jury were not to be followed when they left the court building. This was after an earlier episode when a juror had been approached by somebody sitting in the public gallery "thought to be" Benjamin Pell - known as Benjy the Binman who provided information for money to newspapers - although he had denied it.

Mr Mansfield continued "if it is correct that small groups still thrashed out their arguments at the hotel that is a serious irregularity. The impression in the book that is given is that the jurors had divided between convicters and acquitters.

"Our point is that if that is what happened and that jurors were divided and went to their hotel and continued their deliberations and that a juror had been anxious about things said and done by members of the jury then it is a matter of great concern."

McVicar provided a statement in which he said that about three months after the trial he had been contacted by a member of the public who said he knew one of the jurors but the author emphasised that he had personally never met that juror.